Today I want to talk about miracles, because the construction of the first and only in Russia underwater tunnel under the Amur River can only be called a miracle.
The length of the tunnel is 7198 meters, and the diameter, in the underwater part, is 7.4 meters.
It is indicated that the labor of prisoners was also involved in the extraction of limestone in the quarries. A total of 5.5 thousand people worked in the construction. Let's remember this figure.
In the construction description, it is indicated that five non-mechanized tunneling shields were used.
I translate - the tunnel was built without the use of specialized roadheaders, that is, with a pick and a shovel.
As it is written in the description of the progress of work, 4 vertical shafts were drilled into which the tunneling shields were lowered (which play the role of fastening the tunnel at the point of tunneling), and then the crews with these shields went to meet each other.
It is indicated that the convergence accuracy was such that the deviation did not exceed 15 mm.
What we have as a result. The country built an underwater tunnel without such experience, using simple measuring instruments and using technologies such as a pick and shovel (for passing rocks).
Promotional video:
Tunnel under Amur.
How was the design carried out? How did you know that passing under the bottom of the river, they will not fall into the aquifers, which could well be expected?
How did you achieve such precision of convergence under the ground (and under water!)? How was the extracted volume of soil raised to the surface through vertical shafts?
Why are all these questions? So, 36 years later, in 1977, the construction of the Severo-Muisky tunnel began. And now, real miracles begin.
It turns out that over the years, everyone has completely forgotten such a wonderful experience of high-speed tunneling, as the construction of a tunnel under the Amur.
As described in the description of the construction of the Severo-Muisky tunnel, various foreign experts were invited, but all of them refused due to the difficulty of tunneling.
Why foreign specialists, if we already have such experience?
Deeper up the mountain, the builders could not even imagine what awaited them: the geological and hydrological structure of the ridge was little known. The wells drilled every 500 m did not clarify the picture.
That is, even in 1977, such machines did not exist and the builders could not even imagine what awaited them.
It was thought up to start up 200-300 meters ahead and 15-30 meters to the side of the main axis, an exploration tunnel in order to conduct geological and hydrological research along the way.
The advance laying of the exploration adit from the west showed a small fault.
When they approached it from the side of the tunnel, water mixed with sand and clay burst into the face, sweeping away heavy equipment and people - more than 25 thousand cubic meters.
Loader weighing 23 tons was thrown away like a feather. The breakthrough was stopped by pumping concrete into the already finished tunnel. And for two years, work in this direction was frozen.
Then, in order to continue driving, I had to break through the concrete "plug" again.
Something this reminds me of the "scientific poke" method. And how was the design carried out? It seems to me that for such projects in 1937 (when a project for a tunnel under the Amur was being developed) someone, in full force, would have been censured.
Moreover, two years later, as a result of a breakthrough of quicksand (in granite !!!), under a huge pressure of 30 atmospheres, dozens of people died, and the construction was stopped for two years.
I'm not trying to belittle the feat of those people who, being placed in such conditions (we must not forget that there was radiation in the tunnel, due to the radon gas exceeding the norm), nevertheless built this tunnel.
Severo-Muisky tunnel.
I want to understand why such a degradation has occurred in the construction of tunnels in such a short period of time.
We have already done without building mechanisms. Let the tunnel under the Amur be twice as short as the Severo-Muisky one, although we must not forget that the Amursky tunnel was carried out under water.
But there is a difference of 3.5 years and 26 years. They have been building the Severo-Muisky tunnel for 26 years. They built it simultaneously from both sides, plus, from each tunneling shield, they went to meet each other.
It was stated that when joining opposite penetrations, the deflection was only 5.5 mm at a distance of 15 kilometers.
I am not going to erect a slander, but I once had to communicate with the participants in the completion of the construction of the Severo-Muisky tunnel while maintaining the tunnels on the Taishet-Abakan railway.
They told me that the oncoming tunnels could not be connected straight away, so during the demonstration launch, one train, with flowers and banners, entered the tunnel, and the other then left the other side to create the illusion of a through tunnel.
And this is what we get. Just before the war, using only picks, shovels and Komsomol enthusiasm, a tunnel was being built under the Amur.
At the same time, the country did not have experience in designing tunneling under rivers.
It took 3, 5 years and the tunnel started working right away. He continues to work to this day.
The entrance to the tunnel under Amur.
In the second case, having all the might of the Soviet Union, attracting foreign tunneling equipment, we have been building a tunnel in the mountain for 26 years. At the same time, we lose dozens of people.
I think that the tunnel under the Amur came to us from the previous civilization. This is evidenced by the diameter of the tunnel. Obviously, a smaller one could have been done for a steam locomotive.
They would save on earthworks. But now they have suspended the contact wire without any alteration.
At one time, there was a lot of information about other tunnels under the Amur, whose entrances were found in Khabarovsk, and then filled up.
Maybe this tunnel is one of them?